Disclaimer: This story is part of the #TornadoGiveaway posts by The Book Club and has been published as-is, in its unedited form on Tell-A-Tale.
Who or what defines “different”? Neelam Saxena Chandra weaves out a tale about perspectives and differences.
“You don’t wear sarees?” asked Mrs Roychowdhary.
“I do wear them once in a while” replied Trisha sullenly.
“Why don’t you put a small bindi on your forehead? You will look very pretty with a bindi” said Mrs Iyer.
Trisha shrugged. Till when will her ragging continue?
“What the hell made me attend the party?” she asked herself.
Just then there was a call from Rohit. He was her colleague in the software firm where she was working in Singapore. He was a great pal and kept calling her off and on. She was extremely delighted to receive this call and went away from the group of ladies who had been questioning her since so long.
When she settled down after talking to him for quite some time, Mrs Sinha asked her, “Who was it? Dr Saxena?”
“No”, she replied, “My hubby will give a call as soon as he is free. He must be in the midst of an operation.”
Mrs Sinha’s query had not been satisfied. She asked again, “Then, who was it? Your brother?”
“He was one of my colleagues” replied Trisha without any emotions. It raised almost everyone’s eyebrows. So tough it was for her to explain these ladies her life, her living style, her environment and her priorities. They were two different worlds with nothing in common.
Trisha and Rajeev had had an arranged marriage. While Rajeev was a Doctor working with government hospital, she was a software Engineer. He was not a person who would make his wife leave a job just because they could not stay together. He had told her, “You continue with your job in Singapore for some time. In two or three year’s time, I would get a promotion and will be able to shift to a bigger city where you can also get a good job. Till that time, we will keep meeting off and on.”
It had not been easy for them to adjust to their long distance marriage. Once in six months she would fly back home and once a year he would go to Singapore to meet her. This had continued for full three years. Till she realized that she was pregnant. It would have been tough for her to go through childbirth alone in Singapore. Moreover, Rajeev had also wanted to be besides her when their little one entered the world. So she had taken a long leave from her job and just returned to India.
That particular day, it was the birthday party of Rajeev’s closest friend, Dr Swaroop’s son. Both of them were supposed to go there together, but there had been an emergency and she had to go there all alone. She was finding it really difficult to handle the ladies out in the party. Being in the last trimester of her pregnancy had itself made her feel uncomfortable with her bulging stomach. It seemed to be a big baby. Over and above that this probing was making her feel miserable.
When Mrs Swaroop came to invite them all for the cutting of the cake, she heaved a sigh. “Thank God! They won’t trouble me for some time since they would be busy with something else!” she again said to herself.
However, as Trisha stood up, she started feeling a bit uncomfortable. “It must be a passing problem”, she thought and tried to enjoy the celebrations around. However, the discomfort continued. Soon she had severe pain in her abdomen. She felt that she would fall down. However, two pairs of hands supported her. Finally, she had a blackout.
When she woke up, she was lying on hospital bed. Rajeev and Dr Swaroop were extremely glad to see her open her eyes. Dr Swaroop went out for something. Rajeev held her hands and said, “Thank God, you are better. You had raised everyone’s heartbeats.”
Everyone’s heartbeats? Who are these ‘everyone’, she wondered. Suddenly Mrs Swaroop barged inside with Mrs Roychowdhary and Mrs Iyer and Mrs Sinha and all the other ladies at the party. “We were all really worried! It is so nice to hear that there is nothing really wrong” said Mrs Swaroop.
“Look, I have got some mixed vegetable soup for you. You working children, you don’t know how to take care of yourself. From now on, I have decided that I will be sending you something nourishing every day morning” Mrs Roychowdhary said.
“And I have got some Rawa Masala Dosas for both of you. Everyone around here loves my dosas and so I thought that you would also like them. It is good to eat different things during pregnancy.” Mrs Iyer said.
“Trisha, I shall be taking you for walks every day. Look, it is good to be active during the last trimester” Mrs Sinha said.
Trisha smiled. Yes, these were two different worlds. But love is a small thing which diminishes all the differences. She was only seeing the disparities when she had returned to this town to be with her husband. However, the love and affection of everyone around had gradually broadened her vision and she suddenly felt close to everyone around.
About The Author
Neelam Chandra Saxena
Neelam Saxena Chandra completed her Engineering in Electronics & Power Engineering from V.N.I.T., Nagpur and went on to finish PG Dip in I.M & HRD and PG Dip in Finance Mgmt. She is a bureaucrat working with Indian Railways. She shares from an incurable passion of writing poetry and fiction. Around seven hundred of her stories/poems have been published in various leading Indian as well as international magazines, anthologies and journals. Many of her stories/poems have been transmitted by Akashwani (Radio) also. Neelam was recently nominated in the list of 78 most well-known authors in India by Forbes for the year 2014.
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